Without Sambar, one cannot think about South Indian Food. Even though using the freshly made sambar powder in small quantities daily will enhance the flavor, it is a time consuming task. So only on special occasions or on holidays, we can try for sambar made with fresh powder.
For daily preparation, Sambar Powder is made in bulk quantity and stored for 1 to 2 months. In India, flour Mills are available and we can get it ground in bulk. Any one who is leaving for abroad, will definitely have atleast one big packet of this sambar powder in their baggage.
The combination of ingredients differ from family to family, I prepare with the quantities mentioned here.
Dry all the ingredients under Sun and sent it for milling.
Few Curry leaves can also be added while drying. It will give nice flavor. However, the sambar podi turns slightly darker.

Or you can dry fry the above ingredients in kadai without any oil, cool it and powder it in a mixie, in small batches.

But I am not in favour of making rasam podi in bulk.

Rasam podi can be made quickly. Add one tablespoon thuvar dhal, one teaspoon black pepper, one teaspoon jeera, one red chilli, one teaspoon coriander seeds in a small jar and grind it to a coarse powder. Before removing, add one or two garlic flakes and just grind for one round.

hi,
all your recipes looks awesome, you are great ! 🙂
i have one query can u help me?
u mentioned
thuvar dhal and bengal gram dhal handful, can u tell me approx how many grams is a handful for those dhals?
thanks in advance.

Thank you for your kind comments. Handful of the dhals literally means whatever quantity hold within your hand. It is between 20 to 30 grams. Adding few dhals more or less will not make much difference.

Hi Kamala thanks for all your receipes. I have tried many of your receipes and they have turned out superb. I did try your sambar powder it was very hot and spicy then I added 1/4 kg of coriander more and then it was good. So I used 1/2 kg of coriander seeds for 1/4 kg of red chillies.

When I make sambar powder in bulk quantity, I have not measured the ingredients in cups and spoons. I buy the required quantity in Kgs and grams and use it. Next time I will measure and post it. Meantime, for homemade sambar podi, where I have given the measurements in cups and teaspoons, please check the following link: http://www.kamalascorner.com/2007/01/sambar-powder.html

Black pepper is called in Tamil as “Milagu” and in Hindi “Gol Mirch”. Fruit salt is a citric acid salt and sold under different brand names. “ENO” is the well known brand and we can get this salt in small pouches. We can use it for preparing rawa idli, dokla etc.

U R just awesome…. seriously no words…. gonna try all ur recipes whenever i get time…. the best thing i found was u do respond to all the comments with great spirit…. most of the recipe-websites dont do it… that makes ur website really special and live…. thanks a lot….. 🙂

i am very fascinated by ur page. I am a north indian married to tamil family and I m not very good in south indian cooking. Mostly my husband is disappointed with the food I cooked. Then i tried some of ur recipe, u wont believe I got appreciation (to me it felt real 🙂 not to mention sometimes he fakes, still i feel i m improving) thanks to you 🙂

Hi kamala I’m from Australia and my husband is south Indian I was wondering if you have any great recipes for a lamb curry I’m finding it a bit stressful suddenly cooking Australian food to cooking south Indian food and my husband is quite picky he likes everything the way his mum cooks it so if you have a traditional recipe that would be great thank you heaps.